Back in 2002 when I started home working home internet was via a 14400 bits-per-second dial-up modem. Your computer would tell your modem to dial right into the company network via a special secret phone number and login. You’d cross your fingers every time as it was fragile, slow (forget anything beyond text or icons) and resulted in high call charges for every minute of connection. Monthly I’d get big bills! It also meant it tied up the phone line totally, before filters separate voice and data. As such, with mobile phone call charges similarly high cost at that point, many people had a second phone line just for the internet (DSL was too expensive to consider).

Then we got VPN from the general internet. Use your normal ISP phone number and then use a VPN client program to connect to your company network. Even then, ISPs would disconnect you every two hours to limit bandwidth use, and after a few months of pain, you prepared so you didn’t loose too much data. Now every minute was charged as a ‘local’ phone call which was much cheaper, and some people got their company to pay the second line fixed fees and the call charges.

Next came broadband (around 2007) and while the speed jumped it became impossible to differentiate work from personal use and so most companies stopped paying. Admittedly without any call charges the cost was much lower but early broadband was still not cheap.

Instability was still an occasional inconvenience – probably once a week early broadband dropped out for an hour or so, and roughly once every three months you’d have a day without any internet. For a while you could revert back to dial-up, but that option quickly closed. Usually you’d pack-up and either drive to the office or a friend/relatives house.

So with the history lesson over here are some considerations about successfully working from home through the internet today … as not all internet is the same and you usage profile can be important.

• Speed: video calls and working with large files requires significant bandwidth to be usable. Fiber broadband is generally available and should be fine.
• Use: Even now some cheaper packages have monthly usage limits, meaning that you’ll either loose connectivity, get a drop in speed, or be charged.
• Sharing: usually the rest of the household will use the same internet connection, as such if multiple people are watching movies when you’re trying to work, you might get a speed drop. Annoying if you’re on a video call. Some routers allow you to set Access Controls (restrict/allow certain devices) or Quality of Service rules which cap bandwidth by usage type or device.
• Wifi vs Wired: Unless you’re regularly moving around you’ll ideally want a wired connection into your router for speed and reliability. This might need an electrician to run a cable, but it’s worth it (especially if sharing the connection). Wifi boosters I found not especially good (cheap ones anyway) but am impressed with pass-through adapters as good alternative to a direct wire.
• Backup: Sometimes things go wrong and depending on what you do an internet contingency can be useful. I use a mobile internet dongle, from a different service provider to my mobile phone. It’s really easy to use, reliable, fairly low cost, and has enough capacity for plenty of text-based work. It’s great for doing meetings away from the house/office, and is my home internet backup too.
• Keep Updated: As my internet service contract comes to an end, I commonly ask for either a better deal or the latest router. I am actually reluctant to swap providers as they’re reliable and I don’t need the disruption, however they don’t know this and it’s a good way of getting a better service, better equipment, or both.

Any more tips … leave a comment.